


Where Loyalties Lie

by riani1



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 10:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5866627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riani1/pseuds/riani1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's the ultimate company man.  He knows who he works for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Loyalties Lie

**Author's Note:**

> Just putting up an old story so everything's in one place

Richard Woolsey knew he was not completely trusted in Atlantis. He was too much the organization man. More often than not he used his influence to help the people on the front lines of the SGC, even to the detriment of IOC policies and unspoken goals, but the soldiers and scientists still saw him primarily as the man who would go back to the people in the offices and report on what they were doing. No one liked tattle-tales.

He sometimes wanted to stand in the mess hall of Atlantis and yell, "You have no idea what you owe me! You don't know how many times I've saved you! It's not just the weapons and monsters you have to fear!"

His predecessors in the Atlantis head office were remarkably foolish, despite being very smart and experienced people. They actually kept copies of orders and directives they didn't agree with. He'd created several gigs of new space on the command server by judiciously editing the preserved communiques between Earth and Pegasus. Why else were flash drives invented, except to provide a place for very private evidence storage, just in case? He only kept copies so he could keep track of who was issuing the most egregious memos.

Such as the one from the U.S. government questioning why the military commander of Atlantis, a member of the U.S. Air Force, spent so much time with aliens and non-Americans. Certain xenophobic members of the IOC wanted to know why half of the primary offword team consisted of aliens, when a more properly configured group would have Earth's best interests better in mind. Woolsey spent congenial hours phrasing notes he never sent, asking which half of the team were to be considered the aliens, the ones who were born in this galaxy or the ones from the Milky Way?

Despite the idiotic phrasing, it was a point to consider, and Dr. Weir and Colonel Carter had left notes in their private journals musing on the composition of the first team. 

He watched them in the mess hall, at their usual table, the American, the Canadian, the Athosian, and the Satedan. And he saw the way the two pairs from different galaxies had redefined themselves as Atlantians. Surely Woolsey wasn't the only person on Earth to have understood the significance of Sheppard, Weir, et al., disobeying orders and storming the Pegasus Galaxy to retake Atlantis from the replicators. It hadn't been just to rescue O'Neill and himself--though he was more than grateful for that. Sheppard and the others hadn't been rescuing comrades. They'd been rescuing their home.

O'Neill understood, but O'Neill was also mad. The IOC breathed very quiet prayers to their various gods for O'Neill's final retirement and loss of interest in SGC affairs. Woolsey knew that wouldn't happen till O'Neill's death, and Ascension being what it was, even death wasn't a guarantee.

Woolsey knew his appointment to Atlantis was supposed to help the expedition's focus return to a more "proper" Earth-centric orientation--as defined by the IOC. He was seen as a policy wonk whose loyalties were with the organization, a company man to the end, who would reinstill love of planet and IOC back into the hearts of the wavering. Unlike Colonel Carter, though, who came to understand that Atlantis changed people, Woolsey already knew where the loyalties of the longterm expedition members lay.

There may have been a chance, back in that first year. If they'd sent a new military commander, and a new head of science; replaced the head of the expedition or cycled out some of the military and scientific staff. But they'd made the obvious choice--after some arm-twisting--of sending back the people with the experience to understand Pegasus and to cope with the unique problems there. Some were glad to have Sheppard out of the way, out of what was considered to be the main theatre of action. Others assumed they could trust McKay's essential selfishness to keep him loyal to himself and to the hierarchy that gave him fun toys to play with. Weir was annoying and uppity and was best put far, far away.

There was a problem, though, when you let smart people realize that they weren't welcome back home: they tended to look around and find a new place to call home. Woolsey suspected that if Sheppard and McKay didn't still have blood family back on Earth that they'd never go back again.

At the team's mess table, Teyla finished her story with something about "And the treylak sat in the tree and said nothing," and Sheppard leaned back laughing while McKay grabbed a napkin to catch whatever had been in his mouth at the time. Ronon put his head and arms on the table and tried to muffle his own laughter. Teyla smiled proudly and sipped her water. Sheppard tilted a little too far, and McKay grabbed his arm to haul the reknowned head of Atlantis' military back into his chair, still giggling. At nearby tables, other members of the expedition looked at them with mixed amusement and confusion.

Woolsey had no clue what a treylak was and why it would be sitting in a tree. It was probably a Pegasus thing. 

Did Sheppard realize it himself yet, that he was an Atlantian of Pegasus now? It was fairly well known among the cultures of Pegasus that the people of Atlantis were primarily from another galaxy. Some even knew the name of Earth. But communiques from Pegasus people that referred to "The Earthwoman Carter" also referred to Sheppard of Atlantis. Perhaps that was just a reference to the fact that Carter had been new in town. Perhaps that was entirely the point.

When Sheppard accrued leave time, it was even odds if he would check to see if he could catch a ride back to Earth or if he would shanghai his team to go to a market planet or the world he was alleged to have found that had "four hundred miles of coast like the North Shore of Hawaii! And people who don't want to kill us!"

At the table, McKay was trying to pretend that he hadn't been laughing at Teyla's story and that she owed him a new muffin. Ronan muttered "in a tree", and McKay snickered.

Without Sheppard, McKay would not have left the labs and taken to the stars. But Sheppard had gone, and McKay had followed. The tales of Atlantis that were told were as full of the master of the Ancients' technology as they were of the city's fierce warrior protector. Woolsey wondered if McKay would become Pegasus' version of Coyote, appearing out of nowhere to browbeat the people, insult them, and give them back the gifts of the Ancestors--with improvements.

Woolsey studied the screen of his laptop and the question sent from the IOC: "Are Lt. Col. Sheppard's and Dr. McKay's loyalties still where they should be?" His answer was "Of course they are," but he was answering a different question than the one being asked. He thought a moment and typed his answer.

"Col. Sheppard and Dr. McKay have Earth's safety fully in mind and will do all they can do to protect the planet of their birth and the home of their families. While they live, no harm that they can prevent will befall the place they love."

He smiled to himself, and hit Send.


End file.
